Mythology

By Taing Nandi Aung 6A  The Egyptians used myths to make sense of their life and the world. They made up stories about their gods and goddesses who were there to help them in their lives. It gave them a reason to understand why they existed. The stories about life after death helped them to understand their yearly renewal of their farmland after the flooding of the Nile. Stories about the world around them gave meaning to Egyptian lives. The Egyptians believed that there was a constant battle in the world happening between the forces of chaos and order. For the Egyptians to keep existing and for the sun to rise everyday, balance had to be kept between these two forces. The Egyptians believed in afterlife, life after death. They believed to have an afterlife, people had to be devoted to the gods and behave well while they lived. The ancient Egyptians were polytheistic. Egypt was divided into 42 districts; each one had a local god. Some of the gods and goddesses; Osiris, Horus, Hathor, Isis, Anubis, Thoth, and Bes were worshiped throughout Egypt. They had their own symbol and could also be represented by specials animals. The Mythology of the Ancient Egyptians had begun from their many beliefs in gods and goddesses. There are many myths considering the battles fought between good gods, evil gods, and how life was created. The birth of Amun-Ra and the forming of Egypt are similar stories to that of the king of the gods was born and how he created Egypt. There is also the famous story of King Osiris and Queen Isis. It was about the death of Osiris conspired and planned by his evil brother, Seth. It is also about how Isis searched the lands for her husband’s body and how she put it back together. And later another story was formed about the war and the battles that happened between Seth and Horus, Osiris’s and Isis’s son. Another myth was the explanation of how to get to the afterlife and how it was judged by Osiris, now god of the dead and Anubis, god of embalming. The Egyptian mythology was all about their gods and goddesses. And, it’s confusing and hard to keep track of how many forms a god took at one time. In Egyptian mythology, they say the gods and goddesses could turn into a different form. It’s very confusing when one god transformed into an animal and another god took that god’s power. For example, Ra the sun god. He kept changing his forms one after another. First he changed into Khepri, a scarab beetle. And then he became Ra again after gaining the power of the sun. A few hours later, as the sun faded, he lost his power and became a human form called Atum.  ·  The Birth of Ra   ·   Osiris and Isis  **__  The Birth of Ra __**
 * __ Egyptian Mythology __**
 * __ Two Myths of the Ancient Egyptian __**

 The Birth of Ra is a story of how Ra created Egypt. Ra was born from the dark waters of the Nun. When he was just a newborn he filled his mouth with water and spitted out two children. A boy named Shu and a girl named Tefnut. Now Ra is no longer one god but three. He commanded the children to go and chase away the darkness and chaos. Shu and Tefnut left flying away leaving Ra behind. After they were gone, Ra created an eye. Then he sent it away too, telling it to find his children. When the eye returned, it saw that Ra had a new eye on his face. The eye that had been sent away was very angry. Ra told the eye to calm down. He told it that it will have the power the sun while the other eye would have the power of the moon. That is why the sun has more power than the moon. Ra wept in awe of his creation. The tears gave birth to Egyptian men and women. Meanwhile, Shu and Tefnut had formed a tight bond. They had twins. One became the god of the earth, Geb and the other was Nut, the goddess of the heaven and sky. Shu separated the twins. And so, the heavens and the earth were created. Nut gave birth to four more gods. One was Osiris the king, another was Seth god of storms, then Isis the queen, and finally Nephthys goddess of the house and death. At last, Ra created the very last god, a clever and a powerful son named Thoth. He would have the head of a wise ibis and the power of the moon and wisdom. And soon more goddesses and gods were born underneath the 5 gods. Horus the Wise Elder and the god of the sky, the son of Osiris and Isis who has the head of a falcon. Ma’at the goddess of truth with the head of an ostrich and Anubis, the god of embalming with the head of a jackal. And as time passed, more gods and goddesses grew and lived to make Egypt a wonderful place to live.  **__ Osiris and Isis __**

 This story is about love and life and betrayal and brotherhood.   There was once, a long time ago a god king named Osiris. He was the god of fertility and farming and he showed the Egyptians a wonderful way of living life and living it well. He took his sister, the Goddess Isis as his wif They soon had a son named Horus the younger. Isis was thought of as the perfect wife and mother. Osiris and Isis ruled Egypt with kindness and fairness and love. All the people worshipped Osiris. There was one god who was jealous of Osiris. It was Seth, god of storms and Osiris’s brother. He wanted to be king so he called his twelve friends to a secret meeting. They were going to help him to kill the king. So one night, while Osiris slept, Seth crept into the king’s bed chamber. He measured Osiris’s body carefully. A few weeks later, Seth made a court announcement. He asked Osiris to join a banquet at his palace with his friends. Osiris gladly accepted. At the banquet, Osiris has fun with Seth and his friend, feasting and laughing and watching. Then Seth announced a competition. His slaves brought in a huge gold coffin laid with precious jewels and ivory. Seth said whoever fitted this coffin will get to keep it forever. So all of Seth’s friends tried in the coffin but they were all too short, or fat or tall or thin. So Seth told Osiris to try the coffin. As Osiris laid down, he was a perfect fit. Then suddenly Seth yells, “Bring in the lead!” He slammed the coffin’s lid down. His slaves tightly sealed the coffin with hot lead. Then they carried it down to the riverbank. Seth ordered them to throw it in the river and they did. Osiris’s coffin sailed down the Nile peacefully with the currents. Then a heavy current washed it straight into a tamarisk tree on the shores of Byblos. As the water went down, the branches of the tree pulled the coffin inside their trunk. Earlier at the palace, Isis was playing with Horus in her chamber. Then suddenly, with her magical powers she listened to the wind. She gasped and realized her husband’s soul was lifting away from his body. So she fled with Horus to the floating island of Pe. She went to her sister, Nephthys, goddess of house and death on the floating island. She told her to shelter and protect Horus. And so, Isis left the island breaking the iron chains that held it to the mainland. Meanwhile the king and queen of Byblos went for a walk along the shores. The king spotted the tamarisk tree Osiris’s coffin was incased in. He ordered it to be cut down to be made into a pillar for the queen’s bed chamber. Isis wandered through the countries and one day arrived at the shore of Byblos. She met three of the Byblos queen’s ladies in waiting and braided their hair for them. While she was doing that, she breathed a lovely scent on their hair. When the ladies in waiting returned to the queen she breathed on their scent and told them to get Isis. The Byblos queen wanted to meet the lady who could braid hair so well and breathe a scent so exquisite. Isis arrived and pretended to be humble while she really was more magnificent and powerful than the queen of Byblos. The queen asked Isis why she was so sad. Isis answered that she missed her son, Horus. The queen replied sadly too that her son was sick. Isis, who happened to be the goddess of magical healing and power hurried to the prince’s side to heal him. She told the queen that she can heal the prince but the queen must not interrupt her. The queen agreed but as the days passed, a change over her son became apparent. He was becoming better by everyday. The Byblos queen was curious so she asked her ladies in waiting how Isis was doing this. But they told her every night she locked them out and she made a big fire and then they heard nothing but the sound of a swallow. Byblos queen wanted to know what Isis was doing so she hid in the room. She watched as Isis locked the door, made a big fire and carried the prince to it. After that Isis changed into a swallow and flew around and around the fire singing a mournful song. The queen could no longer stand it so she ran to the fire pit and saved her son from the burning flames. The swallow flew down and changed back into Isis. Isis said to the queen that if she had left the child alone, the mortal in him would have burned out and he would have been a god. Even though the queen had disturbed the spell the prince was well again. The king of Byblos asked Isis what she wanted. She pointed at the wooden pillar and when it split, Osiris’s coffin came falling down. She had found her love at last but she was too late. Isis took Osiris back to Egypt and in a quiet place, she hid the coffin. Now, Osiris was the king of the dead, no more of the living. Then Isis left to look for Horus. Seth and his friends were hunting when Seth spied the coffin of Osiris. Seth was now the evil god of chaos and the deserts too. So he got extremely angry and ripped Osiris’s body into 14 pieces. Then he tossed them into the Nile River. When Isis came back with Horus, she found the damage Seth had created. She set out to look for all the 14 pieces and built a shrine in each place to deceive Seth. Secretly, she put Osiris’s body back. Until then, Osiris continued to rule Tuat, the kingdom of the dead.

**__Cites__** [|www.ask.com] [|www.wikipedia.org] [|www.ancientegypt.co.uk] [|www.bbc.co.uk] __ Myths and Civilization of the Ancient Egyptians __ by Sarah Quie (book) __ Graphic Mythology Egyptian Myths __ by Gary Jeffrey (book) [|www.ristorantemystica.wordpress.com/2008/02/] [|www.thenileandegypt.com/deities.html] [|www.commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/] [|www.en.wikipedia.org] [|www.egypt.mrdonn.org] [|www.viklund.elfwood.com] [|www.sojourness.blogspot.com] [|www.hstrial-cmorrow8.homestead.com] [|www.airsocom.ning.com] [|www.wildlife-fantasy.com]
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